A New Look at Vocabulary in EFL

Attention has recently been turned to the problems of vocabulary in foreign-language teaching, and a steadily growing amount of work is beginning to challenge assumptions that have relegated vocabulary teaching to a secondary position in the priorities of language teaching. However, the teacher of English as a foreign language would be forgiven for holding the view that not much vocabulary teaching goes on at all, especially if it is true that teaching reflects what is in coursebooks. It is true that, in the case of EFL, the teacher has a number of available resources to assist the acquisition, practice, and manipulation of vocabulary at various levels. There are, for instance, carefully graded reading materials, from simplified readers to unabridged literary works—reading being looked upon as the major means of access to a broader vocabulary. In addition, there is much supplementary material available intended for vocabulary expansion. At intermediate and advanced levels, practice and exercise material such as Corder(1960), Graver(1963), Barnard (1971-5), Land (1975), Robinson ( 1977), and Rudskaet al (1981) is available, to name only some examples. But in coursebooks as such, especially at the beginner and lower intermediate level,